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2008: On the cover of The Memphis News, a story on the pasts of and connections between City Council member Rickey Peete and former Shelby County Commissioner Joe Cooper that ended with Peete pleading guilty to federal corruption charges and Cooper wearing a wire and recording conversations in which he paid Peete for his council vote on a billboard project. The story quoted from prosecution documents outlining the crime. “During this conversation, Peete said, ‘I’m going to do what’s right for the community. ... It looks OK to me,’ and then Peete showed Cooper a note written on a piece of paper. The note instructed Cooper to place the ‘paperwork’ (money) in the bathroom.”

J.O. Patterson Jr. was the city’s first African-American mayor. That’s the lead biographical item from any comprehensive history of Memphis political history to come.

His 20-day appointed tenure as interim mayor following the 1982 resignation of Wyeth Chandler, however, was a footnote to a 20-year career on the Memphis City Council that began when the city switched to the mayor-council form of government in 1968.

The Memphis City Council gave final approval Tuesday to an ordinance that sets new rules for mobile food vendors including food trucks.

The ordinance sets hours, times and rules for where the vendors can park or set up their mobile stands. It also establishes distances from existing restaurants in the Downtown area and in the rest of the city.

Complicated, high-profile cases that frequently carry far-reaching significance have a knack for winding up in the lap of U.S. District Court Judge Hardy Mays.

The most recent hot potato to be launched his way is the messy legal fracas stemming from the Memphis City Schools’ surrender of its charter in December. A court hearing before Mays appears set for Monday on the future of an appointed countywide school board.

As he did, the political career of one of the Memphis City Council’s most influential members hangs in the balance because of allegations she used her office to avoid the required annual car inspection ritual for city residents.

The outgoing developer of the Beale Street entertainment district has some ideas about bringing back Overton Square.

Performa Real Estate Entertainment Inc. founder John Elkington told The Daily News he will be in Colorado this month to talk with the owners of the Midtown entertainment district still in search of a new plan. Fisher Capital, based in Colorado, co-owns the property along with Arizona-based Univest.

It was one year ago that the first edition of The Memphis News rolled off the presses and into a new set of racks across Shelby County.

The first cover story was a look at the suburbs of Memphis and their relationship to the city. The national economic recession was just beginning to be felt. A presidential campaign in which Memphis was largely overlooked by the contenders was nevertheless a campaign thousands of Memphians joined via the Internet.

She celebrated her birthday last week with a custom she picked up from a caterer delivering the council members their lunch at City Hall. During a break in committee action, as reporters and other council members wondered about several $1 bills pinned to her red jacket, Ware explained that she had never heard of the custom before but was game for it.

He was supposed to report to the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, Colo., Tuesday. But one week after former local political consultant Joe Cooper filed a sealed motion in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, U.S. District Judge J. Daniel Breen signed an order allowing Cooper more time before he begins serving his sentence.

While other publications reduce staffing and shrink coverage, The Daily News Publishing Co. continues to grow.

Three weeks ago, the 122-year-old company released its newest offering, The Memphis News, a free weekly newspaper aimed at introducing more readers to the paper’s longtime tradition of insightful reporting and in-depth analysis of the business, legal and political landscape.

Former Shelby County Board of Commissioners member Joe Cooper was sentenced Wednesday to six months in prison and six months of house arrest for helping drug dealers launder their drug money.

Cooper’s sentence could have been closer to three years under federal sentencing guidelines. But prosecutors recommended a lower sentence because of Cooper’s role as the government’s key witness in the corruption trial of former Memphis City Council member Edmund Ford Sr. and the guilty plea of former Memphis City Council member Rickey Peete on bribery charges.

With the jury verdict last week acquitting former Memphis City Council member Edmund Ford Sr. on six counts of bribery and extortion, the book has been closed on that federal corruption case against him.

One of the potential witnesses in this week’s federal corruption trial of former Memphis City Council member Edmund Ford remains a lightning rod for criticism among current council members.

The council last week rejected plans for a 48-acre industrial warehouse development near Memphis International Airport from landowner and billboard developer William H. Thomas Jr. They did so because there is a prevailing mood among council members that he does not play by the rules in his dealings with the city.

The corruption trial of former Memphis City Council member Edmund Ford Sr. will begin next month with a jury pool of 105 people. There will be lots of questions for the jury about their backgrounds and political views, but the questions won't be as direct as whether they are Republicans or Democrats or whom they have supported in what races.

GMAC Financial Services Corp., the auto loan company sued late last year along with Bud Davis Cadillac Inc. by wealthy Memphis real estate developer Rusty Hyneman, has been dismissed as a defendant in the case.

An emotional discussion on term limits received a lot of attention at this month's meeting of the Memphis Charter Commission.

But the group reviewing the city charter for possible changes to be submitted to voters doesn't lack for other items. And time is getting short for decisions and answers to questions that in many cases rely on legal opinions and interpretations.

Memphis isn't more corrupt politically than other major American cities, according to the U.S. attorney and FBI agent over the Tennessee Waltz corruption sting and the other resulting corruption probes.

At year's end, the Memphis City Council had left the proposition of disciplining city office holders accused but not convicted of wrongdoing in the hands of city voters.

The council approved a November 2008 referendum that proposes a charter amendment to permit the recall of council members.But the attorney for the Memphis Charter Commission, Ricky Wilkins, is researching the idea of some kind of legal sanction that is more than a censure but doesn't go as far as a removal from office.

Prosecutors have filed a motion in federal court asking that the sentencing of former Shelby County Commissioner Joe Cooper, previously set for Thursday, be delayed about four months.

Federal prosecutors asked for a 120-day continuance so Cooper can help them continue to build a bribery and corruption case against Memphis City Councilman Edmund Ford. Cooper, once a fixture at City Hall where he lobbied the council on behalf of clients he represented, is expected to take the witness stand at Ford's coming trial.

Former Memphis City Council member Rickey Peete now has until Jan. 17 to report to the federal prison at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala.

U.S. District Judge Hardy Mays delayed Peete's original prison report date from Jan. 3 after Peete asked for more time to "conclude any and all outstanding business and personal obligations," according to Peete's Dec. 19 request.

MEMPHIS (AP) - A former city councilman and longtime political activist is to begin his latest stretch behind bars at a federal prison in Alabama next month.

Rickey Peete, 52, is sentenced to just over four years in prison for taking more than $12,000 in bribes to support a real estate project. He was sent to prison in 1989 for extorting payoffs from home builders and spent 30 months in custody.

Nine Memphis City Council members will begin a transition starting next week. Their pictures will go from one side of the City Council chambers at City Hall to the other side.

The nine are leaving the council in what is the largest turnover of seats in the 40-year history of the 13-member body. Current council members have their pictures on the wall on one side of the chamber. The portraits of former council members line the wall on the other side.

Former Memphis City Council member Rickey Peete was sentenced to four years and three months in prison Wednesday for taking bribes to vote for a zoning matter.

The sentence from U.S. District Court Judge Hardy Mays was the maximum possible under sentencing guidelines that took into account Peete's 1989 conviction for doing the same thing during his first tenure on the council.

Former Memphis City Council member Rickey Peete was sentenced to four years and three months in prison this morning for taking bribes to vote for a zoning matter.

The sentence from U.S. District Court Judge Hardy Mays was the maximum possible under sentencing guidelines that took into account Peete’s 1989 conviction for doing the same thing during his first tenure on the council.

A federal grand jury Tuesday indicted former Shelby County Commissioner Bruce Thompson on one count of extortion and three counts of mail fraud.

The public corruption charges that name no other defendants came with just as many questions as answers – questions about possible involvement by others. U.S. Attorney David Kustoff said the grand jury probe is continuing but he wouldn’t be more specific.

A federal grand jury today indicted former Shelby County Commissioner Bruce Thompson on one count of extortion and three counts of mail fraud.

The public corruption charges that name no other defendants came with just as many questions as answers – questions about possible involvement by others. U.S. Attorney David Kustoff said the grand jury probe is continuing but he wouldn’t be more specific.

Memphis City Council members this week marked the 24th anniversary of the opening of the renovated Beale Street entertainment district with an old question: When does the city get money from the district it owns?

Developer Rusty Hyneman has filed a complaint in Shelby County Chancery Court over what he claims is a forgery of his name on documents for a vehicle that was leased in 2004 from Bud Davis Cadillac by Memphis City Council member Edmund Ford's mortuary business.

Only six more public meetings stand between now and the end of this year, when the Memphis City Council faces its biggest member turnover in 40 years.

Voters go to the polls Oct. 4 in the city's municipal election and will choose replacements for a majority of the council body. One of the incumbents who won't be coming back to City Hall next year is Tom Marshall, who's stepping aside after 20 years in office.

A familiar and decidedly unwelcome name confronted City Council members on Tuesday's agenda. And the council reacted by sending the project for a warehouse near Memphis International Airport back to the Land Use Control Board (LUCB).

Shelby County government hasn't printed the forms that are a basic part of its new ethics ordinance. Memphis City Council members are still debating what could be the final piece of the city's ethics array.

With seven incumbents not running for re-election and the resignation last month of an eighth, it is already the biggest turnover of council seats in the 40-year history of the mayor-council form of government.

The newest corruption charges against Memphis City Council member Edmund Ford include not only a new codefendant, former Memphis Light Gas & Water (MLGW) President Joseph Lee. They also include a case that appears to be built in large part on Ford's public record as an elected official.

With one week to the filing deadline for the Oct. 4 Memphis city elections, 124 citizens have thought seriously enough about running for the 15 offices on the ballot to check out qualifying petitions. Nearly 40 had filed by the end of the first week.

The newest member of the Memphis City Council has had plenty of experience handling politicians. Henry Hooper is a retired Secret Service agent assigned to protect four U.S. presidents during his tenure.

Rickey Peete, the Memphis City Council member who resigned this month under a cloud of federal bribery charges and who has steadfastly maintained his innocence, is scheduled to appear at a change-of-plea hearing Wednesday.

Memphis City Council members are expecting more than two dozen contenders to consider for the vacant District 8 Position 2 Super District seat on the council.

They include the owner of a neighborhood grocery store, an insurance executive, seasoned political partisans, a courthouse security guard, perennial candidates, a math teacher and neighborhood activists.

Some are well known in the community. Others are just getting started. And more are certain to take a chance.

In the weekend since City Council member Rickey Peete resigned his council seat, seven citizens from the half of the city he represented have let the remaining 12 council members know they want the appointment.

Memphis City Council chairman Tom Marshall will make a renewed bid for a more specific city code of ethics Tuesday when the council takes a final vote on the ordinance.

The County Commission also is scheduled to take a final vote this month on a separate code of ethics that would govern elected and appointed officials. Both bodies are required by state law to have those rules approved by the end of June.

Universal Life Insurance Co. has begun foreclosure proceedings against a Memphis church that is connected to prominent players in last year's FBI "Main Street Sweeper" investigation.

The church, Fellowship Church of God in Christ (COGIC), is the former owner of a woodsy patch of land off Interstate 240 that was transferred in 2005 to William H. Thomas, a prominent Memphis billboard developer.

It started in December, one day after Memphis City Council members Edmund Ford and Rickey Peete were arrested on federal bribery charges.

Alonzo Weaver, vice president of customer operations for Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division (MLGW), was concerned that those legal troubles surrounding Ford - whom authorities said took $6,900 in exchange for votes - would put a new wrinkle in collecting his large, unpaid debt to the utility.

To say that local billboard magnate William H. Thomas Jr. has a bone to pick with the Memphis and Shelby County Board of Adjustment (BOA) probably is an understatement.

After that eight-member body - which meets periodically to hear appeals related to zoning decisions - declined recently to give Thomas the special permission he needed to build two billboards, the businessman filed suit in Shelby County Circuit Court. And though both Shelby County and the City of Memphis are listed as defendants in the lawsuit, Thomas directed most of his vitriol at the BOA.

For Madeleine Cooper Taylor and her late husband, Dr. Harold Taylor, it surely says something about their standing in the community that both were nominated on separate occasions - and under extraordinary circumstances - to fill seats on the Memphis City Council.

The bulldozers and construction teams that build the sprawling estates in Arlington, the condominiums in Downtown Memphis, infill housing elsewhere in the city and expensive new homes in all the suburbs that surround Memphis got something of a breather this year.

A federal grand jury this week formally indicted two Memphis City Council members who previously had been implicated in criminal complaints alleging they sold their votes in exchange for supporting a real estate project, among other dealings.

The words of FBI special agent My Harrison at a press conference about the latest public corruption scandal in Memphis resonated with the force of a shotgun blast.

"Tap, tap, tap - you never know where we're going to be," Harrison said on Nov. 30, the day two Memphis City Council members were implicated in a bribery scandal. The multi-agency investigation that triggered the press conference, "Main Street Sweeper," is continuing, she added.

Memphis might not be the most progressive city in the world, but it's certainly never boring. At least not if you work in the media or keep up with reports.

On a slow day, you might come across an armed robbery or routine carjacking, but sometimes, the news runs in thick subterranean veins. A little digging, some artful mining, skill and instinct, and suddenly you're awash in emeralds and rubies, headlines and front-page play.

Federal prosecutors dropped their bombshell a few days before the Memphis City Council met Dec. 5. Criminal complaints implicated two councilmen and a well-connected lobbyist in a money-for-votes scandal that, in at least one instance, apparently benefited wealthy landowner William H. Thomas Jr.

A story goes that Franklin D. Roosevelt could draw a line across a map of the United States and name each county the line crossed, as well as that state's political party chairmen. Old hands in Memphis' billboard industry have a similar ability.

Shortly after losing the Democratic primary for a seat on the Shelby County Commission this past summer, Memphis businessman Joe Cooper left town to unwind and visit family members.

It had been a grueling campaign for the seat vacated by former Republican commissioner Bruce Thompson. Cooper, a former car salesman and well-known associate of the late Memphis billboard baron William B. Tanner, nevertheless decided to combine his family trip after the campaign with a little business.

On the surface, a real estate deal proposed this summer that involved several acres of vacant land in South Memphis probably didn't appear out of the ordinary.

The planned development, lobbied for by real estate consultant Joe Cooper, called for a mini-storage facility and an off-premise billboard sign, among other features, to be built at a site on Steve Road, not far from Interstate 240.

The Memphis BioWorks Development Council meets today from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the University of Memphis Fogelman Executive Center, 330 Innovation Drive. Jim Phillips, president and CEO of Luminetx, is the guest speaker. Cost is $20. Contact Mike Demster at 543-3570.

The Women's Foundation for a Greater Memphis presents "Empower Your Future with Financial Planning" today from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Community Foundation, 1900 Union Ave. Cost is $25, which includes lunch. Visit www.wfgm.org or contact Teresa Cheeks at 578-9346 to register.

Sometimes it seems there's no limit to the imagination of Downtown developers, especially since the urban renewal that has already swept through much of the area is now moving to the fringes of Downtown, where vacant land, underutilized buildings and historic structures all could use a new beginning.

The Memphis-Shelby County Public Library presents book discussions with The Outsiders author S.E. Hinton today in the meeting rooms of the Central Library, 3030 Poplar Ave. The Outsiders is the chosen book for this years Same ...

Making sure residents and visitors to the Bluff City know what businesses reside Downtown, but more importantly making sure people visit ...

100. Archived Article: Law Briefs - Thursday, May 24, 2001 Memphis City Council member Rickey Peete will host a town hall meeting for Super District 8-2 from 6 p Memphis City Council member Rickey Peete will host a town hall meeting for Super District 8-2 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. today at Praise of Zion Baptis...